INSIDE THE BURR McINTOSH-MONTHLY • Oct 1908

This is the 12th in a theatrical series from the century-old Burr McIntosh-Monthly magazines. Text in this issue was written by Paul Thompson. A variety of photographers contributed to this issue, and their work is credited here.

This post focuses on Vol. 17 • No. 67 • October 1908

LILLIAN BLAUVELT (Photo by Aime Dupont, N.Y.)

Miss Blauvelt, featured on our covers this month, is one of the most famous prima donnas on the American stage. She has sung in many of the most notable casts at the Metropolitan Opera House and has also been a very prominent singer in concert. Like most grand opera singers she achieved her reputation abroad where she became very famous and then came to this country for the further conquest of money and fame.

MAY McKENZIE (Photo by Otto Sarony Co., N.Y.)

Miss McKenzie was long a prominent member of Weber and Fields’ chorus at the diminutive music hall. After the partners separated she remained with Weber for several seasons. This past summer she was in The Follies of 1908 on top of the New York Roof accompanying that piece when it moved into the theatre proper in September.

IRENE BENTLEY (Photo by Hall, N.Y.)

Miss Bentley, wife of Harry B. Smith, author of probably more successful light operas and musical comedies than any other man in this country, decided she wanted to leave the stage after her marriage a year or two ago. She did so, but she had to listen to the call of the footlights, and now she is back again, this time in The Mimic World at the Casino, where she is one of the featured players.

MARY MANNERING (Photo by Gilbert & Bacon)

Miss Mannering will continue playing Glorious Betsy, the play by Rida Johnson Young, dealing with the historical love affair of young Jerome Bonaparte and a Baltimore belle. Miss Mannering has been using this play on the road for two seasons and may justly be expected to appear in the part in New York some time this winter.

LOTTA FAUST (Photo by Hall, N.Y.)

In her private life, Miss Faust is Mrs. Ritchie Ling, wife of a well-known light opera singer, and for a long time was in The Girl Behind the Counter with Lew Fields. Then she went into The Mimic World in which production she introduced a Salomé dance which was a veritable sensation.

IRENE MOORE (Photo by Hall, N.Y.)

Miss Moore has been playing in a stock company this past summer at the Majestic Theatre, Boston. Before that, readers of the Burr McIntosh-Monthly may remember her in James K. Hackett’s company of John Glayde’s Honour, and after that in his other pieces.

LILLIAN LEE (Photo by Otto Sarony Co., N.Y.)

Miss Lee is another musical comedy favorite in Broadway productions at Weber’s, the Casino and other like amusement houses. She is in The Follies this year, part of her work or play being to display the latest Parisian fashions, the sheath skirt.

GABRIELLE RAY (Photo by Bassano, London)

As one of several sisters who have for years been conspicuous on the musical comedy stage of London, Miss Ray has almost always been identified with pieces produced by George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre or his other light opera house, Daly’s on Leicester Square. One sister visited this country in The Dairy Maids a season or two ago.

HATTIE WILLIAMS (Photo by Frank C. Bangs, N.Y.)

Miss Williams, who starred so successfully for two years in The Little Cherub, is to star in Fluffy Ruffles this year, the same being a musical comedy version of the New York Herald’s famous character.

BEATRICE PRENTICE (No Photo Credit)

Miss Prentice is one of the supporting members in The Call of the North, the piece in which Robert Edeson is starring this year. It is a dramatization of one of Stewart Edward White’s most popular books with the scene laid in the Canadian wilds.

MADEMOISELLE DAZIE (Photo by Otto Sarony Co., N.Y.)

She came into fame as The Girl with the Red Domino in vaudeville, then showed her gratitude to one of the men whose management made her such a success by marrying him. This was Mark Luescher, a New York theatrical manager. Last season she was the premier dancer at the Manhattan Opera House, but this past summer she has been a featured player in The Follies of 1908.

GERTRUDE HOFFMAN (Photo by Frank C. Bangs, N.Y.)

Mrs. Hoffman was the first of the many dancers to produce the famous Salomé dance in this country. She made use of the Maud Allan ideas which had set London astir. Then she followed the Salomé dances with a very different thing, Mendelssohn’s Spring Song dance, also done in London by Miss Allan. In private life, Mrs. Hoffman is the wife of the well-known composer, Max Hoffman. One of his latest pieces was The Rogers Brothers in Panama score used by the German comedians all last summer.

NOTABLE PLAYS OF THE MONTH

The Traveling Salesman by James Forbes, at the Liberty Theater.

The Man From Home by Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson,

at the Astor Theater.

The Follies of 1908, playing to packed houses on the New York Roof.

Postscript: Maud Adams appeared — shall we say "off Broadway?" — at Harvard University in a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The BurrMac included a picture of that, as well:

Just "Click the Pix" to enlarge.

Stage Whispers is published by carlacushman.blogspot.com/

INSIDE THE BURR McINTOSH-MONTHLY • Sept. 1908

This is the 11th in a theatrical series from the century-old Burr McIntosh-Monthly magazines. Text in this issue was written by Paul Thompson. A variety of photographers contributed to this issue, and their work is credited here.

This post focuses on Vol. 17 • No. 66 • September 1908

AMELIA STONE, on the cover of this issue. (Photo by Frank C. Bangs, N. Y.) Miss Stone is not unfamiliar to readers of this publication through previous reproductions of her photograph. It may suffice to recall that her last appearance was in The Gay Musician at Wallack’s Theatre, in which she scored a pronounced success after the regular season had ended. She probably will sing the prima donna role in the same production on the road this season, later appearing in a new Broadway offering of a light, musical character. 

JEAN AYLVIN (Photo by Dover Street Studios, London)

Miss Aylvin is an attractive musical comedy player of London. She has been prominently cast in Gaiety theatre pieces and will probably come to this country in The Girls of Gottenburg.

FLORENCE DAVIS (No photo credit)

Miss Davis is a player well known in the south and west. She has headed her own companies for several years and won an unusual amount of priase from critics and public. This year she will use Maxine Elliott’s production of Henry Esmond’s play Under the Greenwood Tree, which ought to serve her admirably for a starring vehicle.

BERNICE DE PASQUALI (No photo credit)

Mme. DePasquali is one of the acquisitions of Signor Gatti-Casazza, the new head of the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York. She is an American, her name being Bernice James, receiving her musical education at the National Conservatory in New York. She made her debut in London three years ago, then went to Italy to sing in the principal opera houses in that country. After her Italian tour she visited Greece, France, Mexico and Cuba duplicating her success in those countries.

MINNIE MADDERN FISKE (Photo by Marceau, N. Y.)

Mrs. Fiske, following a remarkably successful season in Ibsen’s Rosmerholm, will make her New York reappearance this fall in a new play at the Belasco Theatre which has been secured for her use for several months. The new play will be on a timely subject and of a novel character, the scenes being laid in New York and will give the gifted star an opportunity to create a role entirely new to the stage.

JANE HADING (Photo by Reutlinger, Paris)

Miss Hading is one of the greatest of modern French actresses vying in many critics’ opinion with Bernhardt and Rejane. She is now at the Odeon in Paris, one of the principal theatres in the French capital. She has toured England recently but has not been seen here for many years, though I believe she once came here with Coquelin.

BERTHA KALISH  (Photo by Alice Boughton, N. Y.)

Mme. Kalish will appear once more this coming season under the direction of Harrison Grey Fiske, husband and manager of Mrs. Fiske. Her last season was rather unsuccessful in Sapho and Phaon and Marta of the Lowlands, the latter used for a few performances by Mrs. Fiske.

LOUISE LeBARON (Photo by Purdy & Co.)

Following a successful stay in Boston in light opera, Miss LeBaron repeated her success this past summer at the Coliseum in Cleveland as a prima donna of the Imperial Opera Company. For two years Miss LeBaron was a member of Fritzi Scheff’s company singing one of the important roles in support of that former “little devil of Grand Opera” in Mlle. Modiste.

ROSE MELVILLE  (Photo by Bushnell, S. F.)

Miss Melville has been associated for so many years with Sis Hopkins plays that her name is as inseparably associated with that part as ever Joseph Jefferson’s was with Rip Van Winkle or Denman Thompson’s with The Old Homestead. She is one of the unfailing stars “out on the road” although New York knows her only for a week or two at some theatre off Broadway which plays traveling attractions.

ALEXANDRA PHILLIPS (No Photo Credit)

Miss Phillips has been with Wilton Lackaye in Hall Caine’s melodrama, The Bondman. This has been offered throughout the country, but has not been seen in New York yet, though there is a possibility of its being presented in this city this season at one of the bigger playhouses.

THE MIMIC WORLD (Photos by Hull)

Beneath the picture in the BurrMac, the caption reads as follows: From left: Margaret Illington from The Thief; 4th—Kid Burns from The Talk of New York; 6th—Lord Dundreary; 7th—Prince Danilo; 8th—Samuel Spotwood from Father and the Boys; 9th—The Merry Widow; 10th—Phillip Bridau from Honor of the Family; 11th—Kyrle Bellew from The Thief; 12th—Jack Brookfield from The Witching Hour; 13th—Lotta Faust.

[I found that slightly confusing, so I looked up The Mimic World on the Broadway database. The show is loosely described as a musical comedy strung together with tableaux of show biz references. And it was exceedingly popular. The Broadway database lists a large and talented cast on opening night in July 1908. If the show's script was as witty as the descriptions of its characters, it's no wonder it was a hit.]

Also featured in The Mimic World were Irene Bentley and Her Dancing Girls.

Topping the long list of popular productions that summer were The Follies of 1908 and a rip-roaring singing & dancing comedy entitled The Three Twins. [The Burr McIntosh-Monthly didn't offer any pictures of this comedy, but it so happens that I have this great turn-of-the-century cigar box label that I'm happy to share with you here.

This was the show in which Bessie McCoy became famous as the Yama Yama Girl. If you want to find out more about the plot and the cast, visit the Broadway Internet Database.]

Just "Click the Pix" to enlarge.
Stage Whispers is published by carlacushman.blogspot.com/

INSIDE THE BURR McINTOSH-MONTHLY • July 1908

This is the 10th in a summer series designed to acquaint you with the very collectible Burr McIntosh-Monthly magazines popular a century ago. Text in this issue was written by Paul Thompson. A variety of photographers contributed to this issue, and their work is credited here. It's obvious that by mid-1908, Mr. McIntosh had little time for his magazine, as he spent more of his time in Los Angeles, forging a new career in motion pictures. 

This post focuses on Vol. 17 • No. 64 • July 1908

OLIVE MAY (Photo by Dover Street Studios, London)

is one of the more attractive of the younger generation of players on the London stage. She is now appearing in that city as one of the gaiety girls in the new production, Havana. 

ROBERT MANTELL (Photos by Otto Sarony Co., N.Y.)

is now one of the most prominent actors playing Shakespearean roles in this country. Although he is an old-time actor and has been well known for his portrayals of melodramatic and romantic roles in the popular priced houses, it was not until a very few years ago when he came into the late Princess Theatre on Broadway that New York realized the ability of the man. He probably will have a London engagement shortly if his manager’s plans go through. 

PERCY HASWELL (Photos by Otto Sarony Co., N.Y.)

has had the good fortune to be in one of the conspicuous New York successes, being cast for the leading woman’s part in The Honor of the Family, Paul Potter’s adaptation from the French of Fabre’s play based on Balzac’s story, The Two Brothers. Miss Haswell is the wife of George Fawcett, who has made such a big hit in London in The White Man, known in this country as played by Faversham under the title of The Squaw Man. At one time Miss Haswell was a member of the late Augustin Daly’s company. Of late years she has been in her husband’s stock company in Baltimore. 

MARIE TEMPEST (Photo by Dover Street Studios, London)

is starring in London in Mrs. Dot, by W. somerset Maugham, at the Comedy Theatre, this being the third success by the same author now being played in the English capital. It is one of the best things the talented Miss Tempest has done, and the rights for America have already been secured by Charles Frohman for next year. 

MME. GLACIA CALLA (Photo by Otto Sarony & Co., N.Y.)

has studied grand opera singing under the best masters in Paris, and now at the very end of the season in this country she is to have an opportunity to display her ability with a light opera company that will possibly be heard in New York after a road tour. 

ANTOINETTE WALKER (Photo by Frank C. Bangs, N.Y.)

is the ingenue who created the role of Jenny in the original production of The Music Master. The past winter when David Warfield revived that play, which in time will become as much of an American classic as The Old Homestead, Miss Walker was engaged to play her original role once more. 

FRITZI SCHEFF (No photo credit)

who deserted grand opera for the musical comedy stage, has one potent reason for remembering the season just ended, inasmuch as it brought release from her marital bonds. Moreover she ended her use of Henry Blossom’s clever piece, Mlle. Modiste, which has served her so successfully for three seasons, a result due to Blossom’s clever book and lyrics, Victor Herbert’s good music, and Manager Dillingham’s excellent staging of the piece. 

RUTH MAYCLIFFE (Photo by Frank C. Bangs, N.Y.)

is one of the three girls in Clyde Fitch’s Girls, the satire on the bachelor girls of today which has been so very successful at Daly’s Theatre, New York. She plays the youngest and most impressionable of the bachelor girls, and is the first apostate from the non-marrying faith. 

CRISSIE BELL (Photo by Bassano, London)

One of London’s show girls, Crissie is also a noted beauty. She created a sensation in the beauty contest recently held there to determine who should be called the most beautiful woman in England. 

MARGARET ILLINGTON (Photo by Sarony, 5th Ave., N.Y.)

has been starring with Kyrie Bellow for eight months in New York in The Thief. With her husband, the well-known manager Daniel Frohman, she departed immediately after her theatrical work had ended for a vacation in Arizona. 

MAUD ADAMS (Photo by Sarony, 5th Ave., N.Y.)

has been playing in The Jesters, a romantic comedy in blank verse, which was first done in Paris by Mme. Bernhardt, this marking the second time that the American star has followed the great French actress in masculine roles, the other time being in L'Aiglon. Miss Adams is to play before Yale and Harvard Universities in As You Like It and other Shakespearean comedies, and is probably to make her debut in such roles in London next season. 

NOTABLE PRODUCTIONS IN THE SUMMER OF 1908

Among the pieces with a seeming grip on life as far as a prolonged stay in Nw York is concerned, are the following:

PAID IN FULL by Eugene Walter, one of the big hits of the season, has a most interesting history. It was to come into the Astor Theatre last December but did not because it was such a pronounced failure on the road. Another attraction was substituted and the work of reconstruction begun, a most hopeless appearing task and one which the wise-acres said was foredoomed to failure. Meanwhile, the author, who had a play called The Undertow done here by a popular-priced stock company with virtually no success, was sleeping in parks and getting food where he could. Then came the premier of Paid in Full, and in one night he became the most sought-after dramatist of the moment, with managers galore seeking for any play he might have written or might write. Indeed, shortly after Paid in Full, another play, a melodrama of the Canadian woods call The Wolf, was produced, and is at the present writing being offered on Broadway, but not with the success of the first play. All the critics united in praising Paid in Full, which had a quality of naturalness and conviction which goes straight to the mark. It has the advantage, moreover, of being well cast so that every role is in capable hands, and that counts for a great deal. The story is a simple one of a married couple in moderate circumstances, the husband going wrong and wrongly blaming his missteps on the wife.

Once more The Four Cohans, a quartette as famous today in the houses where big prices are charged for seats as they were formerly in vaudeville. George M., the son and genius of the family, has scored in a most decided manner with The Yankee Prince, whose life at the Knickerbocker Theatre bids fair to be a regal one. He has written a satire on the title-hunting Americans with bank rolls to substantiate their claims to foreign alliances, but it is not so much in his satire, which is only occasionally in evidence, that he wins out, as it is in the clever manner in which the piece is made to hold together a number of excellent specialties in songs, dances, etc. His idea is evidently that of the late Charles Hoyt, who had a wonderful vogue the latter part of his lifetime—people like vaudeville, consequently give it to them disguised as a play, the characters in your story to provide the specialties. Hoyt combined a very clever satire on some public foible with his good vaudeville and made a great big success of the plan. Cohan works along somewhat similar lines, but substitutes musical comedies for farces as the connecting link to the "turns." Josephine, his sister, who has been absent from the family group for some years, her place being taken by her brother's former wife, Ethel Levey, has now returned from vaudeville, and her reappearance with the family has evidently exerted a beneficial influence, for her brother's book, lyrics, music and personal work were never better. The Yankee Prince may be commended as a clean, well-staged, tuneful, amusing offering.

Clyde Fitch has failed so often of late that it is a pleasure to record the unquestioned success of his latest play, Girls, a satire on the bachelor girl and her foibles. While it borders on the vulgar at times, as Fitch plays are apt to do, one can even forgive that for the sake of the genuine fun which is provided. Three girls have an organization which foreswears man and matrimony and in the course of the play each girl falls a victim to the darts of the youthful, scantily clad marksman. Here again clever players add to the enjoyment of the author's work. Laura Nelson Hall, ringleader in the anti-man society, was the star of Rachel Crothers' short-lived play, The Coming of Mrs. Patrick; Amy Ricard will ever be remembered for her athletic girl in The College Widow, while Ruth Maycliffe, youngest and prettiest of the trio, is to me unknown. Charles Cherry, Herbert Standing and Zelda Sears are the other notables in the cast who make the play the success it unquestionably is.

In addition to the aforementioned lighthearted entertainments, Mr. Thompson also gives a nod to two summer productions of New York's Metropolitan Opera Company. (Photos by Byron, New York)

Just "Click the Pix" to enlarge.
Stage Whispers is published by carlacushman.blogspot.com/